Black History Month 2024

February 1 marks the beginning of Black History Month. Each year we celebrate the accomplishments of African Americans and recognize their distinctive contributions to the rich tapestry representing our nation.  During this time, I often reflect upon important impressions occurring during my childhood in Gary, Indiana, “the town that knew me when.” Last year I offered a presentation entitled “My Soul Looks Back, All the Way Back and Wonders. . . A Celebration of Black History in Poetry.”

As I began, I asked the audience to journey back with me seventy-three years to February 22, 1951, when I was eight years old in the third grade, back in the middle of the 20^th Century. I recall looking at my class picture and noticing the bulletin board in the back of the classroom decorated with these words: “Negro History Week.”  Since that time, the celebration and recognition of the contribution of African Americans has been expanded to Black History Month.

The bulletin board in the picture reminded me that at that time I consciously determined that I would someday “make history” and do something significant as an African American. Back in the day, it was expressed this way: “I wanted to be a credit to the Negro Race.”

Today, I am a former registered pharmacist, a published poet and a writer, and a retired professor of African American Literature, who continues to teach online. As an adjunct professor, I continue to teach  because “I love the teacher’s task and find my richest prize in eyes that open and in minds that ask.”

Just as I made up my mind in elementary school that I would someday make a significant contribution as an African American and someday do something to “make history,” I would like to think that there are countless other young men and women inspired by that same desire to “make history,” each in their unique way.

So often we think of history as people and events of the past; however, we must remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, “The reader of history must replace the words ‘there’ and ‘then’ with the words ‘here’ and ‘now.’” 

As we celebrate Black History Month, I also want to remind readers that the recognition of the contributions of Black Americans must not just take place during February. The celebration should be ongoing. To commemorate this grand occasion, I offer this poetic tribute:  

New Horizons

A Psalm of Celebration

This month we turn back the pages of time

To obscure sections in history’s scrapbook.

With fervor, we seek to correct the crime

Of omission of Black heroes.  We look.

For ministers, martyrs, masters of rhyme,

Familiar names of those who first took

Part in the legacy that seeks to bring

Black people to lift every voice and sing.

Yet our eyes should not focus on the past

Too long.  We need to look ahead and see

That heroic memories cannot last.

Living heroes must transcend ebony

Images; we need women who stand fast,

Men who live to unveil the mystery.

Heroes must live beyond this month.  Somehow

Our lives must tell that history is now.

We who know our true heritage are the ones

To set our vision toward new horizons.  

Tags: african-american, african-american-history, Black history, Black History Month, History, Negro History Week